This week I came across an interesting genealogy blog called the Genealogue. In this blog the divorce and remarriage was talked about in relations to how this affects a family tree. What I found humorous is that modern humans have so many divorces and marriages that we no longer have family trees, but rather “family hedges.”
When developing a family tree or hedge, you need to keep things as organized as possible. It is easiest to start with yourself and siblings and work backwards to complete the upper portion of your family tree. For people who have had multiple partners you will simply need to create extensions to the person’s line. For example, Uncle Tom may have had two wives during his life. You can link him to one wife on his left and one wife on his right. You can then connect Uncle Tom and the appropriate wife with their offspring.
After you have completed the genealogy for the generations before you, you are ready to complete the generations that came after you. This is going to be easier, because you most likely know who is related to whom and how they are related. If you need help you can always call people in your line or below. Since these people are most likely still alive, you also have the option of collection photographs for each of the entries from your line and below.
After completing your family tree step back and take a look at it. Does it look like a family tree or a family hedge? What does this say about the reality of modern families?